“Five Books I’d Read: Child-Rearing Edition (Washington City Paper)” plus 1 more

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Five Books I’d Read: Child-Rearing Edition (Washington City Paper) Posted: 29 Mar 2010 02:39 PM PDT in which the author discusses five books he'd read, if time permitted. 1. Prime Baby, by Gene Luen Yang. I thought this was a baby book about a baby who learns what prime numbers are and why prime numbers are important and, since a lot of people seem to be having babies these days, I picked it up because I thought it would be good to have on the bookshelf for re-gifting (or, more specifically, "free-gifting") purposes. But, instead of being a book about a baby who learns what prime numbers are and why prime numbers are important, this seems to be a graphic novel about a really smart (alien?) baby aimed at an older audience. I guess I should have known. What baby wants to know about prime numbers? And why are they important? I haven't seen Contact in awhile, so I've forgotten. 2. Love in a Time of Homeschooling: A Mother and Daughter's Uncommon Year, by Laura Brodie. God, choosing a school for a child seems like a nightmare. Way worse than figuring out natural childbirth, or daycare, or potty training, or breastfeeding, or attachment parenting, or whether your parents really should move closer to you when their first grandchild is born so that they can see that grandchild (and, presumably, you?) more often even though their closer proximity and more frequent visits might interfere with your commitment to raising a vegan daughter and your avant-rock band's irregular practice schedule. Picking a school isn't just like Russian Roulette—it is Russian roulette, but a drawn-out version of Russian roulette that includes bullies and A.D.D. diagnoses. If you live in a major city with oppressed racial minorities/socioeconomic underclasses and you send your kid to public school, you're undoubtedly walking into some nightmare Blackboard Jungle/Lean on Me/Boyz in the Hood scenario, but if you send that same kid to a ridiculously expensive private school, you're walking into some equally nightmarish Less than Zero/Dead Poets' Society/Catcher in the Rye scenario. Or, like the author of this book, you could grow some balls and homeschool your kid, but who has time to do that when there's so much media to consume? I haven't even had a kid yet and I'm not totally caught up on Lost. 3. The Collaborators, by Pierre Siniac, translated by Jordan Stump. The Cure didn't write a song about every cool French novel. 4. The Language God Talks: On Science and Religion, by Herman Wouk. I'm not really sure who Herman Wouk is and can't believe that he is still alive, but, like William Styron and Robert Ludlum, he seems to have authored a number of books that are only available on the mildewed bookshelves of vacation/beach homes on the East Coast which, in every month of every year that's not June, July, or August, remain abandoned with the heat and the water shut off; books best read (or, truth be told, skimmed) as one lays (lies?) on the beach catching some rays, wondering whether it's time to reapply sunscreen to one's shoulders while lighting a damp cigarette and trying to figure out whether that crew of attractive girls and boys Boogie-boarding in the seaweed-y surf are intelligent, ironic, and, most importantly, over 18. 5. Alberto Garcia-Alix: Box, photographs by Alberto Garcia-Alix, introduction by Lola Garrido. Since I'm not perfect, I don't speak Spanish, and was unable to immediately uncover much useful information in English about the (Spanish? Mexican?) painter Alberto Garcia-Alix, but take a moment and enjoy the fruits of this Google image search, if you're not stranded Google-less in mainland China. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

‘Hauling’: The New American Consumer (The Vanguard) Posted: 29 Mar 2010 10:57 AM PDT There's a YouTube phenomenon that's been bothering me: the haul video. These videos are homemade by young women showing off their clothing or makeup purchases (their "hauls") to anyone willing to watch. The craze has 100,000 videos carrying its badge right now on YouTube, and according to Times Online, new hauls were being uploaded every 12 minutes last week. The thing that bothers me about these videos isn't exactly the personalities of the young women featured in them; they're personable and seem friendly enough. The clothes and makeup in the videos aren't bad either. Anyone can see these chicks really know how to put together an outfit and sniff out a bargain. The weirdest thing about this particular sect of the YouTube world is that these people are spending their time after shopping trips talking about what they bought and in great detail. I appreciate the design elements of a nice blouse as much as the next girl, but to spend 10 minutes preaching about skinny jeans to (what I imagine to be) a rapt audience is kind of depressing. Whenever I watch these videos (purely for research purposes, of course ... harumph), I can't help but feel they perpetuate the stereotype that Americans are nothing more than materialistic sheep. 100,000 videos dedicated to expounding upon purchases made at CVS pharmacy, Macy's, and Forever 21: It leaves one to question what the ultimate purpose is. Blair Fowler, known as the "haul queen," told Good Morning America that she started her videos because she found sharing her girly acquisitions fun. I can see the fun in doing it, sure, but at the tender age of 16, Fowler dropped out and opted for homeschooling in order to focus her energy on shopping. She and her sister actually split advertising revenues with YouTube, which earns her big bucks, and companies shower her with free clothing in the hopes that she'll name-drop. So the purpose looks to be chasing the American dream: being paid an obscene amount of money to do what anyone else could do (just kidding … or am I?). Getting paid to do what you love is swell and something we should all aspire to. Hopefully, if we do something we love, we can contribute to our communities and perhaps even the world in a meaningful way. However, showing off clothes on a video-uploading site isn't exactly posterity in the making. It's impermanent; the clothes that were so cherished in a video will be old rags in a month or two. The newest trend will pop up, and the effort put into making a video won't mean jack. A video people emulated with fervor will soon be all for naught. Maybe it's my bourgeois attitude that makes me lack understanding. There's something thrilling about telling people you bought a gorgeous item off the rack that had a 75 percent discount. The people who watch get a vicarious high from seeing someone else's shopping treasures; it's like buying things without spending a dime. This isn't hurting the people in the videos or the viewers, so what's the problem? It's really a problem of ideals. When most people think of America, they envision a country where freedom is the most precious of principles. Instead, the reality of the situation is that buying power is a tenet of our society. Whether you're buying mansions or $7 shirts, the more stuff you have, the more interesting, admirable, and "American" you are. Hopefully, this trend will die down slowly but surely, if not for the superficial consumerism argument, then because it's taking up airtime and print space that could be used for real news. Now that's a real pity. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

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